


Liontrust Prompt Fills

by Akaiba



Category: Warcraft (2016)
Genre: M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-19 02:22:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 10,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7340761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akaiba/pseuds/Akaiba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt Fills from from my Tumblr.</p><p>Chapters will be added as I write more prompt fills. Each fill is a different rating and will be marked as such, but the overall collection will be marked for the highest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gryphon Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: Lothars griffon forgive me, but because Khadgar is so uneasy during any flight ride that Lothar comes up with a very interesting way to distract him during a particularly long one *winkwink....
> 
> Rated Mature

“No, sit in front.”

“I-I don’t think that’s such a-”

Lothar rolled his eyes, “You spent the entire ride to Kharazhan trying to squeeze the life out of me, all the while praying and pleading to be put down. You need to learn how to ride a gryphon and ride one well, you can’t just teleport everywhere.”

Khadgar shook his head firmly, even stepping back from the bored looking griffon Lothar sat atop. “I think you’ll find I am a mage and I can.” He just about held his tongue from pointing out that Medivh did exactly that but Lothar could read it in the petulant clench of the mage’s jaw that they both know it was implied.

“You either get on voluntarily or I am hauling you up here,” Lothar remarked like he was discussing the weather. He didn’t even have to inhale after the last word before Khadgar was scrambling up in the front of the saddle. 

They both knew Lothar would make good on his word and the mage’s reputation wouldn’t survive it. They were already drawing curious glances from the soldiers, guards, and stable hands watching the Lion of Azeroth badger the new Guardian onto a gryphon, they didn’t need to make it worse with the spectacle of Lothar grabbing Khadgar by his collar and lifting him up. Because he could, and would, Khadgar had found.

Barely settled into the saddle and Khadgar was gripping onto Lothar’s arm tight as the warrior urged the gryphon into taking off. He couldn’t quite swallow down the sick feeling that rose in his stomach, scrunching his eyes shut and driving his nails into the hardened leather of Lothar’s vambraces as he willed himself not to panic- again. 

Firmly, but oddly gently, Lothar pried Khadgar’s hands from his wrists and chuckled low in Khadgar’s ear when one hand came free and immediately clamped down onto the other arm so the mage was clinging desperately to one of Lothar’s arms. It was like trying to wrestle free from a baby murloc. It took a bit of work but soon Khadgar held the gryphon instead, in a death grip that the gryphon gave an irritated look over her shoulder at him for but it was progress. The beating wings and rushing air were not the reason for Khadgar’s panicked breathing however, so Lothar put into action the plan he had conceived. 

Khadgar’s eyes snapped open at the feel of Lothar’s palm spread over his belly. Warm and wide it urged Khadgar back against Lothar’s chest, letting the warrior bury his face into Khadgar’s neck until Khadgar was struggling to breathe for an entirely different reason. 

“Lothar, w-what are you-” Khadgar choked as he felt the definite press of Lothar’s mouth, just a brush really, over his skin and then the older man was chuckling again.

“I would think what I am doing obvious,” Lothar murmured against Khadgar’s neck. The whipping air as it blew past them was loud but with Lothar pouring the words into Khadgar’s ear with a low voice the mage not only heard every word but felt them, hot and heavy with each breath against him. 

The mouth turned purposeful then, Lothar’s lips parting to leave a wet kiss where he had teased. His beard tickled and rasped over Khadgar’s skin as he lavished kiss after kiss up and down the length of Khadgar’s neck. The mage didn’t even know when he had tilted his head back to lean against Lothar’s shoulder but he had, sagging into Lothar’s hold and giving him all the room he wanted to keep doing just that. Khadgar’s eyes were vacantly watching the clouds as they soared overhead, closer than should be reasonable, but he couldn’t feel the fear when all he felt was Lothar plastered against his back and the man was doing such teasing things with his tongue and- _oh, teeth…_

Khadgar shifted in the saddle as Lothar dragged his teeth over Khadgar’s throat, nibbling at the skin he’d been so attentively kissing. It shouldn’t have been so interesting, not when they were so high in the air and the peril of falling to the doom should have been the more pressing concern, and yet Khadgar outright moaned as Lothar’s free hand slide up the nape of his neck. Lothar’s fingers carded through Khadgar’s hair, mussing the dark mop of hair as he tipped Khadgar’s head forward.

The ground was rushing by below them, the tops of trees waving in the breeze as the gryphon sped them onward. Worry began to clench at Khadgar’s belly and then Lothar’s mouth pressed a kiss at the top of his spine, following a path round as Khadgar’s head was guided by Lothar’s hand to rest on his other shoulder. Now, Lothar was free to start again on the other side of Khadgar’s neck. In blissful surrender Khadgar let Lothar distract him until the low hum of pleasure was no longer enough.

Khadgar rocked into the saddle and then back against Lothar, satisfied to feel the man wasn’t unaffected either as he ground forward into Khadgar’s rear and gave a low groan. When Lothar kissed him again it was with more teeth; sharper and more hungry. Khadgar whined, letting go of the gryphon with one hand to tangle it in Lothar’s hair and pull him up for Khadgar to clumsily mouth at. What Khadgar lacked in finesse Lothar did not so the warrior took lead of the kiss and devoured Khadgar as best he could, nipping at his lip and jaw as he tried to still the mage’s eager rocking motion. 

“Anduin… land us, please,” Khadgar whined at the scrape of teeth on his neck.

Lothar gave one last sucking kiss before he spoke, “You’re the one learning to fly, get us landed.”

He moved Khadgar’s hand from where it pulled at Lothar’s hair, setting it back on the gryphon with the mage’s other hand. It was difficult not to simply take control and do it, but desire was a powerful motivator and Lothar was surprised to see Khadgar urging the griffon down only after a few frustrated attempts. Enough to still have them ruffled and aroused on landing in the courtyard. 

“Khadgar! You look as though a beast has mauled you!” Taria called in teasing amusement from one of the upper balconies, Varian giggling at her side as Khadgar tried to pull his collar up in embarrassment.

Lothar, however, beamed up at his sister unrepentantly until a wing slammed into his head and knocked him a step. Spinning about he was faced with a very upset gryphon who snapped her beak at him before butting her head into his chest in reprimand. Maybe he shouldn’t have forgotten their third wheel, it certainly looked like he would be in her good graces any time soon.

“He didn’t exactly stop me,” Lothar pointed out.

The gryphon butted her head against him as Khadgar huffed indignantly, and that seemed answer enough that he wasn’t getting out of it that easy.


	2. For Your Touch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: liontrust prompt: accidental stimulation. Lothar is constantly doing this casual thing to Khadgar that is totally nonsexual, not knowing he's driving the poor mage out of his mind
> 
> Rated T

Lothar wasn’t a tactile man in the sense that the word often conveyed, but Khadgar learned very quickly that what he lacked in emotional openness he made up for with ample amounts of sarcasm and surprisingly: touching.

A reassuring pat on the shoulder, a firm grip of a forearm in solidarity, Lothar had even cupped his face when he’d been trying to assure himself Khadgar no longer had Fel in him. He didn’t mind embracing his sister, or his niece and nephew, when they had flown on the gryphon together Lothar had told him to hold on tight with no hesitations. He didn’t exactly exude a touchy-feely persona, and yet Khadgar had never been more physically overstimulated in his life.

The worst part was that Khadgar was the problem, not Lothar. It would be easier if Khadgar could explain he wasn’t comfortable, maybe suffer a little teasing before Lothar obliged, but that wasn’t it. 

The problem was that Khadgar loved it. He _craved_ it.

He’d been sent away from his family at six years old and the Kirin Tor weren’t exactly serenading their charges to sleep with lullabies and forehead kisses. Khadgar had stopped trying to hug his mentor before his seventh year but still hadn’t shaken the habit of hugging his pillow while he slept and yet he hadn’t really seen an issue with it the older he’d gotten. It wasn’t like people were rushing to embrace he when he’d run away so it wasn’t until he found himself being the target of Lothar’s camaraderie that the problem reared it’s head.

It wasn’t sexual and Khadgar was ruining it by reacting to it in a very sexual way. He wanted the man in more ways than he could name and every way he could imagine, and yet Khadgar didn’t deserve any of that. Lothar wasn’t offering that- he offered friendship and loyalty and Khadgar was ruining it.

Khadgar was going out of his way to get Lothar to touch him. Anything at all: a ghost of fingers when he passed the warrior something, a shoulder nudge when Lothar teased him, a shove when Lothar went too far, stepping so close he could feel the man breathe when Lothar mentioned Callan. It was getting out of hand and Khadgar knew it. Lothar would fix him with those piercing, assessing looks and Khadgar knew he had to get himself under control or he would alienate the one person- the one _friend_ \- he had that touched him at all.

Of course he couldn’t manage it, though. 

Lothar’s hand closed over where Khadgar’s had lingered on the man’s chest too long. Lothar had asked him to come with them on a patrol and the intimate touch would have been odd even briefly, but Khadgar had been shaken from the heat he could feel through the thin tunic. Lothar’s chest hair was curling out of the shallow dip of the collar and Khadgar thought he could feel the spring of it under his hand.

“Khadgar…” Lothar’s voice was low and Khadgar had never been more stricken by his own name.

He snatched back his hand ducked his head, choking on the creeping horror that he’d finally done it. He’d finally pushed Lothar too far. “I-I, o-oh, I-I… I-I didn’t…”

“’You didn’t’…? I think you did,” Lothar hummed thoughtfully. His voice was pitched so low and in the empty council room it felt like it was wrapping around Khadgar. Was he so starved for touch he imagined he could feel the man’s voice now?

Lothar’s hand slowly slid around his cheek until the swell of it rested in the warrior’s calloused palm. The mage stood there, frozen from the first touch, and terrified as the warmth bleeding into Khadgar’s skin from Lothar’s hand had him leaning into it like a flower to the sun. He let his eyes close in defeat as he sighed, contented and resigned in the same breath. When he opened them again it was to see Lothar’s satisfied expression.

“You did,” Lothar repeated pointedly.

Khadgar swallowed hard, “I did.”

“Why?” The question came lightning quick as though Lothar had barely been holding it back and it surprised Khadgar.

He had thought the answer to that obvious, and yet…

“You… you don’t know?”

“I suspect.”

Khadgar reached up to press his hand against the back of Lothar’s, like he can make the feeling go deeper. The feeling of safety and welcome and warmth, Lothar was as close to home as Khadgar has felt since he was six years old and Khadgar was ashamed.

It hurt to do but Khadgar slowly slipped back a step, away from Lothar’s addictive touch, and hung his head apologetically. “I am sorry,” He breathed.

“You’re sorry? For what?”

Lothar was going to make this difficult. Khadgar should have guessed.”F-for… for not respecting your boundaries. I-I shouldn’t have… touched you.”

“You are certainly a fool if you mistook anything I’ve done as unwelcoming of your touch,” Lothar snorted, his voice light and amused as Khadgar’s head snapped up in shock.

“But you-! And I-! You just-!” Khadgar shook his head, “No, you can’t mean that. You’re teasing me again.”

“I am not.”

“You are.”

“I am _not_.”

“You _are_!”

“I,” Lothar stepped forward, trapping Khadgar between the council table and the warrior, “Am,” His arms rested on the table either side of Khadgar’s hips as he watched the mage breathe harder, face flushed, and lose the fight not to lean into him, “Not.”

Khadgar gulped, “R-right, okay. You are not. Y-you can… let me go, now.” If Lothar didn’t let him go very soon there was the distinct possibility that Khadgar might never let Lothar ever let him go.

“Now, why would I do that?” Lothar cocked his head curiously at the mage squirming under his gaze, “I’ve had my eye on you since I pinned you to a table the first time, spellchucker.” Khadgar’s tongue slipped out to lick his lip at the memory. He’d been uncomfortably hard and immeasurably grateful for his loose robes from the moment Lothar’s hand closed over his mouth that first time they met.

“I really, really hope you mean that, Anduin.”

Lothar’s face was so close that Khadgar could feel the heat of his breath against his mouth when the warrior spoke and it was making Khadgar dizzy. “Are you challenging me to prove myself? Because I can do that.”

“By the Light, yes!” Khadgar’s arms snared around Lothar’s shoulders with a flare of blue magic that swallowed them up and blinked them from the room.

Lothar, as expected, proved himself a man of his word.


	3. Pride and Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: If your comfortable writing smut liontrust desk smut plssssss if not how about Lothar catching Khadgar explain magic to lil varian and being like over come with pride.
> 
> Rated G

The sound of voices beyond the door of Khadgar’s arcane study gave Lothar pause. The door was ajar so Lothar decided the conversation couldn’t be all that private if the mage hadn’t remembered to close the door and crept closer to listen. He was surprised to hear Varian’s voice, however. 

“Khadgar?” Varian asked, using what Lothar had dubbed his best ‘king voice’ when Varian was trying to fit the authority he had been given too soon. 

Khadgar didn’t even chuckle as he answered easily, “Yes, Prince Varian?” The prince was supposed to studying with one of his tutors if Lothar’s memory served but of he and Khadgar, Khadgar was the one more likely to send Varian to his studies and the mage apparently had no intention of doing that.

Then again, Khadgar had few friends in Stormwind. Guardian or not, he had technically killed his predecessor and it was only his own word, Lothar’s, and the Kirin Tor’s to vouch for his actions being necessary- and Lothar’s word was the only one that carried any weight to Stormwind’s people. Khadgar had proven his worth a thousand times over and still Lothar saw people giving him a wide berth; be it out of distrust, fear or wary respect. It didn’t matter. It just made for a very lonely mage and Lothar had seen what loneliness had done to Medivh, he had no intention of letting the same happen to Khadgar.

“How does your magic work?” 

Lothar heard the sound of a book being closed and shuffled a little closer to the frame of the door, straining to hear. Khadgar hummed in thought before answering, “Well… that depends. Specific spells work in different ways, mostly because they do different things,” Lothar pressed his face to the sliver of a gap to see and watched Varian nodding his head dutifully at Khadgar’s words. He was perched on the high backed chair the mage sat at his desk in, with Khadgar apparently leafing through books and reading standing up instead. The fascinated expression on Varian’s face convinced Lothar that the prince had escaped here of his own accord, however, and wasn’t that endearing? Khadgar had a fan. “But in a more general sense? Well… it is like, for lack of a better analogy, cooking.”

Just barely Lothar managed to stuff a knuckle into his mouth to stifle the snort of laughter he wanted to make. He was never letting Khadgar live that down. He had likened his own magic to cooking and Lothar was so delighted at the teasing this had opened up to him. 

Varian was less amused. “’Cooking’?”

Khadgar chuckled, “In a way, your highness. The ingredients aren’t as simple as flour or milk, however. Runes and knowledge of where to pull the power from allow me to bend arcane magic to my own will, to create or reshape.” Lothar watched the mage waggle his fingers at the little prince who grinned at the movement. Oh, Khadgar definitely had a fan. 

“Could I become a mage?” 

Lothar froze as Khadgar drew up short. “Uh… well, of course,” Lothar’s eyes widened in shock as Khadgar continued cheerily, “It takes years and years of hard studying, your highness, but I think you could manage that, don’t you agree?”

Varian’s nose wrinkled in disgust, “’Studying’?!”

“Of course!” Khadgar enthused, “It was many years before I could cast the simplest of spells, and you’re already a few years behind when my studies began but I shouldn’t think that could stop you.” Lothar could have kissed Khadgar for his attempting to dissuade Varian. If Varian decided he wanted to be a mage Taria would never let Lothar hear the end of it, never mind that someone would have to be the one to break it to the prince that actually, as Stormwind’s prince, his people had too much need of him for him to dedicate his life to arcane studies.

“…How many books?” Varian asked hesitantly.

“More books than all of the ones in Stormwind’s great library.”

“I don’t want to be a mage.”

Khadgar chuckled and then softly admitted, “Neither did I.” That pulled Lothar’s mind to a halt and for a moment he was too stunned to even blink. But then, Khadgar had told him as much before, hadn’t he? ‘Given to the Kirin Tor’ he’d said. 

“What?! But you’re a really good mage,” Varian insisted. He dropped to his feet from the chair and crossed his arms at the mage. “The Horde would have won if you weren’t a mage, and we would never have met! You would never have met Uncle Anduin and before he met you he was so grumpy and now he’s much happier, I think he lov-”

Lothar kicked the door wide open so that it bounced off the wall it swung into so hard and Lothar had to brace it off his forearm so that it stayed open. “Varian! There you are!” He took far too much delight in watching Varian’s face pale at having been caught talking about his uncle’s private life. “Shouldn’t you be with your tutor?”

Startled, but ever quick, Varian broke into a run. He called over his shoulder, “Bye, Khadgar!” as he ducked under Lothar’s arm and ran down the hall before Lothar could scold him any more. Lothar didn’t need to catch him, however, he’d just tell Taria later and she’d enact sufficient revenge for Lothar’s mind.

“Callan was never this much trouble, I swear it’s Llane’s blood,” Lothar said by way of conversation to Khadgar who had his arms folded and was watching Lothar with a quirked mouth and a raised eyebrow. 

“Hm, and it has nothing to do with the fact you’ve been spying on us for the last five minutes? He was telling me what I already know- you’re happier since we started sleeping together.” They both knew it was more than that but Lothar tended to run away if they acknowledged it. 

Lothar grunted noncommittally as he strode up to Khadgar and tugged him roughly into a hug that staggered Khadgar into returning awkwardly. The mage patted Lothar’s back in confusion as he felt Lothar press a kiss to the top of his head but he was even more stunned when Lothar said, very sternly, “I’m proud of you, you know that?”

Khadgar blinked, shaking his head on a laugh as he pulled back. “Are you drunk?”

The warrior didn’t let him go far as he gripped Khadgar’s shoulders and held his gaze fiercely. “I am serious,” It made Lothar’s chest ache to see how Khadgar’s evasions halted and he looked up at Lothar with such naked vulnerability. He was so young, so strong, and Lothar knew he deserved more than he had been given. He’d never really considered it until Khadgar mentioned it, but his parents had given Khadgar away. It meant Khadgar hadn’t chosen his path. Not until he ran away, and even then he chose to return to it to save Azeroth. “I am proud of the man- the _mage_ \- you are. You should be too.” Khadgar couldn’t meet his eyes at that and Lothar had to grip his chin to keep it lifted. He had to make Khadgar see that he meant it, every word. “Do you hear me?”

Khadgar swallowed hard before he could make his tongue cooperate, “I-I hear you.”

“Good, because we’re late for lunch.” Lothar offered his arm and Khadgar, in a state of bewilderment, took it.

“We are?”

Lothar didn’t answer but continued leading Khagar from the castle. It wasn’t exactly a rich banquet, but the innkeeper at Goldshire had agreed to rent him the whole tavern for the afternoon so he could surprise Khadgar with dinner, wine, and candles. He’d been assured there would be candles. It wasn’t a huge step, but it was one long overdue and one Lothar was prepared to take. He had meant every word, after all. He was proud of Khadgar and was proud to be with Khadgar.


	4. Dinner Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: Lothar coming home from a hard day at work to find Khadgar cooking supper for him.
> 
> Rated G

“-not like the book at all! What have I created?!” 

Lothar felt the familiar pull of the arcane as Khadgar dispelled his magic, and then the push of it as Khadgar began to cast. Lothar pushed the door wider, curious to find what the mage was so worked up over.

Khadgar was, as ever, surrounded by books but rather than reading them at his desk or on the floor one was floating by his face and he looked to be sweating from exertion as he wove his fingers through the air. Symbols and curls of power spilled around his arms as Khadgar braced his feet and grit his teeth, pushing and wrestling with powers beyond Lothar’s command in a grand show of determination. 

A table clattered into existence. One of the legs was wonky and it toppled a few of the glass upon it to spill something that smelled like vinegar. There were plates of food all either burnt or spoiled, as though someone knew the vague shapes and even vaguer preparations but had never actually made the food themselves. 

“Uh, what are you doing?” Lothar stared down at the sorry excuse for a feast that Khadgar had pulled into reality seemingly on a whim, though a taxing whim as Khadgar huffed for breath heavily.

Khadgar span around to stare at him wide-eyed, as though caught doing something he shouldn’t have been. “I-I… well, I… I wanted to make you dinner.” Lothar raised an eyebrow as he looked from the exhausted mage to the, frankly revolting, table spread out before them. 

“Hm… you know there are chefs in the kitchens, right? People who can actually cook?” Lothar poked one finger, still encased in the armour of his gauntlet, at the shriveled fish in the center plate. 

“I wanted to do it, and I can’t actually cook-”

“No kidding,” Lothar barely moved from the smack the mage landed to his arm between the folds of his plate mail. 

“-so I thought I could use magic instead,” Khadgar continued like Lothar hadn’t interrupted. He let out a heavy sigh as they both stared down at the mess before Khadgar wearily banished it from existence. The pop of magic made Lothar’s ears ache for the barest second before he turned to Khadgar’s crestfallen face with warmth tugging at his heart. He’d thought he’d forgotten all of this, the little reprieves from the world to be had just by wanting to be near someone else. Just from making them smile. 

“How about we go to Goldshire, hm? I know you like the spice bread and stew at the Lion’s Pride,” Lothar nudged Khadgar’s arm gently as he began unbuckling his armour.

Khadgar sighed again as he moved to help in the task of removing the armour Lothar wore, “I just… it was supposed to be my treat. I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, you managed that at least,” Lothar teased, ducking his head under the loosened strap of his breastplate to escape it’s hold. “Let us have dinner and see if that clever mind of yours can’t conjure other entertainments for the evening, hm?”

The mage’s mouth quirked at the corner, amused at the teasing leer Lothar leveled at him, and he pushed at Lothar’s stomach like he was trying not to encourage it. “If your aging body can keep up with my clever mind, then by all means.”

“Oh-ho, you are going to regret that one,” Lothar lunged for Khadgar but the mage blinked from the spot he was standing in to across the room and out through the open door Lothar had left. 

Khadgar looked back with a wide grin on his face, “The old man would have to catch me to make me regret it, wouldn’t he?”

Half out of his armour Lothar gave chase to the Guardian down the corridor, startling several guards as they passed and not caring at all. 


	5. Sweet Treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: Domestic Liontrust, you say? How about: Khadgar braiding Lothar's hair? In increasingly intricate ways. Khadgar lighting fires/heating food/cooling drinks/CONJURING food and drinks with his magic and spoiling Lothar rotten? Khadgar not knowing how to do a lot of the basic housecleaning because the Kirin Tor had servants for that and he hasn't had a full-time home since, so Lothar does most of it (possibly half naked with a manbun). Cuddling because they're both borderline touch-starved.
> 
> Rated G

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one got a little crack-y with their antics. :D

“You have to understand the mechanics of how this works, at least?” Lothar asked incredulously as he watched Khadgar slosh water on himself again. Khadgar gave him a truly pathetic look, that might have been an attempt at a glare but was softened by his sopping sleeves, and gripped the cloth so tightly it squeaked in his hand. 

“I understand the mechanics, yes, thank you,” The mage said primly. He plunged his hand back into the water and the cloth slipped from his grasp as it became heavy with water once more. 

Khadgar cursed and reached for it at the same time Lothar reached for it with a “Let me-” and the dish Khadgar had been ineffectually scrubbing fell back into the sink with a heaving splash. Fortunately for Khadgar, it landed entirely on Lothar and splashed all the way up to the collar of his shirt.

“That was your fault,” Khadgar immediately insisted, drawing his hands from the sink with a disgusted sound and storming over to the couch in front of the fire. “You know what? It’s actually the Kirin Tor’s fault!” He snapped into the cushion he shoved his face at.

Lothar took a moment to blink and shake the water dripping down his nose away before giving up on his shirt entirely. “It’s the Kirin Tor’s fault you can’t do the dishes?” He asked conversationally as he pulled the shirt off and dropped it into the already spilling over washing basket. Looks like he’d have to take care of that as well.

“They had servants do everything for us!” Khadgar barked like it was the worst thing he could think of, not at all seeming to see how ridiculous he sounded as Lothar hummed disinterestedly and turned his attention to the dishes. “I’m serious! It was just another way they trapped us! When I ran away I had no idea how to cook for myself, let alone wash my own clothes or even how to get money! Of course I could just make food but word travels fast in little villages when someone is making apples and hams appear from nothing. It is enough to send most running straight back and I- what are you doing?”

Lothar snorted as he set another clean plate on the side. “I am doing the dishes, one of us has to.”

Khadgar made a soft sound like he was choking on his own breath, “No, why are you… like that?”

The warrior turned to raise an eyebrow at Khadgar but seeing the mage settled on his knees and staring fixedly at his chest let him know everything he needed. “Oh,” Lothar smirked and patted his bared stomach with a low-lidded look to the mage, “Someone got my shirt soaking wet, so it’s only practical.”

“Practical?” Khadgar repeated dazedly, following the path of Lothar’s soap wet fingers up his stomach to the spread of chest hair and finally to drift past one alluringly perked nipple. “Come here,” The mage demanded.

At that Lothar had to laugh. “I have to do the cleaning, because I don’t have servants and apparently you’re too old to learn how.” Khadgar wasn’t impressed with being denied as he held out a hand beseechingly.

“They can wait.”

Lothar took up a strip of leather from the kitchen table and knotted his hair up into an efficient bun, “That’s what you said yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that one, as well.”

“You sound like you didn’t enjoy yourself.”

“You know very well I did,” Lothar smirked as he grabbed a dry cloth to put the dishes away with, “But as much as I would rather relearn every inch of you with my tongue, that isn’t going to tidy the house.”

It was still an exercise in restraint and Lothar had to keep his back to Khadgar as the mage let out a stream of frustrated sounds before flopping onto the couch. Each plate clink seemed to rattle Khadgar more and more the longer Lothar was in the kitchen and not with him, so Lothar ensured he made as much noise as possible.

A snap of arcane magic and Lothar could smell something sweet and fresh and something that had definitely not been there before.

“Are you bribing me?”

“Would it work?” Khadgar asked deadpan.

Turning to look at the mage Lothar found him craning over the back of the cough with one hand offering up a cupcake. “What is it?”

“A carrot cupcake,” Khadgar waved the treat in a slow circle, “It’s really nice. I just want to play with your hair and you can have it…”

Lothar looked from the cupcake to Khagar’s pleading face and determinedly turned back to the dishes. “When I am done.”

True to Lothar’s estimation of the mage, all he succeeded in doing was frustrating Khadgar as the pull of more magic so close by twinged in Lothar’s ears. He couldn’t help himself, Lothar had to know what Khadgar had done so he dried his hands and cautiously walked back into the front room to find the dining table piled high with treats. Pies, brownies, doughnuts, cakes, more cupcakes; all of them heaped onto the table and a very smug looking Khadgar stood beside them. The mage raised his hand threateningly, his eyes flaring blue as he warned Lothar to stay still.

“I get to style your hair how I want, right now, or I dispel them.” 

Lothar didn’t even hesitate, “Deal.” His sweet tooth was infamous and Khadgar had already nearly broken him with one cupcake, let alone the entire contents of a bakery. Khadgar’s smirk widened at his victory, flinging fire into the fireplace and pointing to the rug in front of it before he handed Lothar the cupcake he had teased the man with. Lothar bit into the cupcake as he obediently followed the mage’s directions but he rather felt he was the victor here as Khadgar settled onto the couch to thread his fingers into Lothar’s hair.

The washing didn’t get done but Lothar did consume almost the entire table of treats before they turned in for sleep, and the soldiers Lothar ran drills with in the morning thought his center waterfall braid looked very pretty.


	6. Not Today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: Domestic LionTrust you say? How about Anduin getting banged up during a fight (not severely, just a lot of aches and bruises) so Khadgar draws him a nice bath and massages some of the soreness away.
> 
> Rated G

“I didn’t know you had a spell for that,” Lothar smiled through a wince as Khadgar eased the warrior’s shirt over his head in an effort to minimize the amount of reaching and pulling Lothar had to do. “The bath, I mean.”

Khadgar absently looked at the steaming tub, only half filled, in the middle of their bedroom as he deftly unbuckled Lothar’s belt. “I don’t. I did it by hand.”

“Huh.”

“If you say that with any more surprise I’ll freeze it over,” Khadgar knelt down to help Lothar lift his feet out of his trousers so the warrior could balance with a hand on Khadgar’s shoulder. 

“Me?” Lothar huffed out a laboured laugh as Khadgar stood, “I would never.”

The younger man didn’t dignify that with an answer as he unceremoniously shoved Lothar’s smalls down to his thighs. “Get in the bath,” Khadgar said instead, before Lothar could make a crude remark at his speedy disrobing.

The house was quiet and cosy, warm from the fire that Khadgar had stoked to a crackling roar on their arrival. It had felt so good to return home in a way that Lothar hadn’t thought he needed. The infirmary had been full of the injured and the weight of it everywhere he looked haggard him, keeping him awake at night listening to his men’s whimpering cries and pleas. Khadgar had been there harassing the priest until the man was practically shoving Lothar and Khadgar out of the door with orders to rest for a week. No heavy lifting and no exercising. 

The prospect didn’t sound so bad with Khadgar doting on him like this.

Lothar froze with one leg lifted over the edge of the tub, pain flaring in his side as his carefully stitched wound pulled with the movement. Khadgar was there in an instant, supporting his weight and helping him the rest of the way into the water. It was difficult not to be surprised at how the mage handled him, gentle but still surprisingly strong. 

He let out a gratified groan as the warm water settled at his waist and seeped into his aching muscles, the simplicity of it so needed after their recent losses weighing so heavily on him. Khadgar’s hands slid around his neck and Lothar closed his eyes as the mage squeezed gently. It was decadent lying there as Khadgar massaged his sore shoulders, even rubbing under his jaw and around his neck so carefully like Lothar was in need of being handled delicately.

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Khadgar to go harder when he heard the mage’s breath hitch. Lothar’s eyes snapped open and he grunted as he levered himself to turn and look at the mage. Khadgar wouldn’t let him go, the hands around the warrior’s shoulders locking instead as Khadgar held him tight with his face buried into Lothar’s neck.

Any pretense of silence was forgotten with Khadgar sobbing freely as Lothar gripped his forearm as reassuringly as he could. 

“Talk to me, kid,” Lothar breathed when he dared.

Khadgar’s grip tightened but Lothar wasn’t about to complain with the wetness he could feel gathering on his neck. “I almost lost you,” He choked out.

Lothar reached around to cup the mage’s face, guiding their eyes to meet so Lothar could make it very clear that he was with Khadgar still. Khadgar’s eyes were crinkled in despair, his cheeks sodden with his tears, and Lothar wished he had the mobility to haul himself out of the tub to hold Khadgar properly. “You didn’t,” He offered, pressing their foreheads together as best he could.

“I could have,” And that was the point, wasn’t it? He could have died, Lothar thought. He might not have come back at all, or if he did it might have been under a white sheet. Khadgar might be alone, but for the kingdom he head to protect.

All the assurances in the world couldn’t change that fact, or that fact that there would be ‘another time’. Each time they rolled their luck could be the last and Lothar knew all too well how it didn’t always work out. He had enough dead family and friends to fill a graveyard and he knew it, in his soul, that there was nothing he could do to change the fact his time would come. But Khadgar… 

Khadgar was still young and hopeful enough to fear it. To want with all his heart to change it, despite the futility of it.

Lothar couldn’t bring himself to take that from him so instead he pressed a lingering kiss to Khadgar’s brow and held him close. With everything in Lothar he swore to himself that he would not be leaving Khadgar any time soon. They might never grow old together but it would be a long while yet before would be taken from his mage.

That would have to be enough.


	7. Deft Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: For the Liontrust promting: Unexpectedly-capapble-without-magic Khadgar (Just because he CAN throw fireballs doesn't mean he never used a firesteel before.)

Lothar couldn’t help staring, not when Khadgar was being so normal and throwing off Lothar’s expectations with just a simple flint and tinder. The mage was huddled in his cloak over the gathered dry leaves and Lothar couldn’t look away from the determined focus Khadgar was giving his task as he struck the flint once, twice, and on the third time the spark took. 

Leaning back on his heels Khadgar didn’t even look particularly accomplished, he simply hunkered down and blew gently onto the spark until the smoke was heavier. When he sat up he caught Lothar’s impressed gaze with confusion.

“What?”

Lothar shrugged but couldn’t resist answering, “I expected you to use your magic.” He gestured to the smoking leaves Khadgar was nurturing.

Khadgar rolled his eyes as he teased the smoldering ember into a tiny flame on the edge of a leaf, “I was on the run for a while, Lothar. Laying low meant no magic, otherwise they’d find me eventually.”

A suitably strong flame was nestled into the pile of dry leaves and Khadgar reached for the rabbit they’d caught while on their excursion. Much as there was to do, they were no use to anyone exhausted and burned out. It had been Taria’s idea for Lothar to take Khadgar out for some fresh air. Two days in to their unofficial break and they’d done little but have sex in the tent, the grass, by the riverbank, against a tree… Lothar seemed relaxed, however, and Khadgar would be lying if getting to be with just each other for a while had eased him as well. 

Khadgar had gotten the animal half skinned when he noticed Lothar was still staring, more so even than before. “What?” He asked, worried that maybe he had done something wrong.

“I am surprised to see you get your hands dirty, is all,” Lothar teased, but Khadgar could plainly see that not only was Lothar surprised but he was impressed.

Khadgar’s brows pinched at that. “Again, I was lying low. Plus, it wasn’t as though the Kirin Tor gave us money. I had to hunt, however poorly, but I learned how to prepare game,” He shrugged off the irritation he felt at Lothar’s frankly patronising approval and finished preparing the rabbit. 

Deftly he cut the rabbit meat off and began to throw the chunks into a pot with the vegetables he’d foraged while Lothar checked their trap. He’d only thought to bring salt but that should be enough, it was just a simple stew after all. Lothar would occasionally look over as Khadgar filled the pot but his gaze wasn’t as piercing or amused so Khadgar chose to ignore it. It was part of the man’s nature to be so observant anyway, and while Khadgar had found himself a focus of Lothar’s attentions it came with that same fixated focus. The warrior was endlessly watchful and oftentimes it was stirring to feel that heated gaze on him.

The mage forgot about it as he stirred the pot and left it to cook as he moved to sit against Lothar’s side. Book in hand they sat in companionable silence as Lothar fiddled with repairing the lure they’d damaged that morning, but as the stew neared completion Khadgar could sense Lothar curiously looking from the pot to Khadgar.

Serving the warrior a bowl Khadgar jumped when Lothar groaned around his spoon, “You can cook as well?”

Khadgar gave him a withering look. “Why is it so amazing to you that I can do basic tasks?”

“Medivh couldn’t boil water without magical aid. I can roast meat but a full meal? Bread? Cakes? Beyond me,” Lothar nodded to him in approval. “I meant no disrespect. It’s admirable.”

Khadgar waited a beat for the punchline but none came so he blinked in surprise of his own at Lothar’s sincerity. “Well, I… I suppose I…”

“And, of course, it suits you being my househusband.”

And there it was. Khadgar made an outraged noise, “I am studying- not keeping the house!”

Lothar grinned around a mouthful of stew, swallowing thickly and trying to lean in for a food slicked kiss that Khadgar disgustedly dodged. Lothar chuckled, “I should get you an apron.” Khadgar made another infuriated noise and Lothar merrily accepted the smack he received for his troubles, the stew pleasant if simple on his tongue and Khadgar’s rage promising him retribution later. 

Lothar couldn’t wait.


	8. In Sickness and in Health

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: For the Domestic!Liontrust thing: Khadgar getting sick, so Lothar has to look after him.

Lothar lifted the book from Khadgar’s hands, speaking firmly over the nasally whine the mage gave as he pathetically tried to reach for the tome, “That does not count as resting.”

“I’m in bed!” Khadgar insisted with far more b’s after each word than there needed to be. He finished his defiant look with a truly revolting inhale through his blocked nose and then, and Khadgar had to be doing it on purpose, he swallowed. Lothar was half tempted to smack the book off Khadgar’s head for that. 

“You’re disgusting is what you are,” Lothar thrusted a soft linen handkerchief at the bedridden young man before setting the book down across the other side of the room. “Working isn’t resting, kid. No more.”

Khadgar shuffled to sit higher on the bed as his red flushed face screwed up in outrage, “Then what am I supposed to do in bed all day?! It’s been two days and I’m bored, Lothar! I am going out of my mind staring at the ceiling all day!” He flopped back against the mountain of pillows Lothar had nestled him in, the blankets piled on him kicked petulantly to his waist. “I want to help, we don’t- the Kingdom doesn’t- Azeroth doesn’t have time for me to be sick,” Khadgar pointed out like his argument meant he had to win their discussion simply by virtue of throwing duty around. 

Lothar knew his own duty. He had also had the weight of it a lot longer than Khadgar had. He knew a thing or two about working himself to breaking in an effort to fulfill that duty and he knew what that got a person. Already Khadgar looked older than the bright eyed boy he’d slammed onto a table and it had little to do with the cold the mage was nursing.

“Should I rouse the men and women in the infirmary then?” Lothar folded his arms sternly as he glared down at Khadgar.

“What does that have to-”

Lothar interrupted, “Clearly duty comes first, mighty Guardian, so surely the soldiers who are resting and recovering should be held to that.”

Khadgar dejectedly rolled over, tsking in disgust at Lothar’s words as he burrowed into the bed. “Don’t mock me for taking my duty seriously,” He snapped, voice soft and more than a little hurt.

It was easy to forget, Lothar thought, just how young Khadgar was. The weight of Azeroth on his shoulders didn’t leave room for youth and innocence. Lothar felt he’d watched whatever vestiges of it that had remained be shredded in the time they’d known each other. Lothar sat down on the bed and reached out a hand to the slumped shoulder he could see, sighing when Khadgar blew his nose obnoxiously for Lothar’s revolted benefit.

“You aren’t alone, alright?” Lothar squeezed Khadgar’s shoulder gently, “Azeroth will not fall if you rest.”

The silence stewed around Khadgar as he seemed to struggle with the idea that he could relax the rigid standards he held himself to and Lothar could only reassuringly thumb over the mage’s shoulder until finally Khadgar’s hand closed over the top of Lothar’s hand. A shaky exhale left Khadgar’s mouth and he seemed to physically deflate, as though the huge shirt he had stolen from Lothar and the hoarded bedding didn’t dwarf him already.

“Logically, I know that. Still...”

Lothar turned his hand so he could hold Khadgar’s hand in his own and thumbed gently over Khadgar’s knuckles. “It helps to hear it,” He finished.

“Yeah...” Khadgar sniffled wetly and Lothar wrinkled his nose. 

Still, it didn’t stop him from crawling in behind Khadgar and wrapping their linked hands about the mage’s waist. It wouldn’t do for them both to get sick and lying this close was already pushing it, never mind how badly Lothar wanted to kiss Khadgar’s wrung out, exhausted face. 

“Sleep, Khadgar,” Lothar murmured against the back of Khadgar’s neck. There was a vague snuffle of protest but before the next kiss Khadgar’s breath was beginning to even, rattling as it was, and Lothar folded himself more around the younger man in his arms.

Taria was not impressed when, mid-speech the following day, Lothar sneezed almost in the face of a very disgruntled dignitary from Gilneas. Lothar, however, maintained it was all Khadgar’s fault.


	9. What Could Have Been

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Angsty Liontrust prompt: “Back then, I lied when I told you I didn’t love you. You needed to move on from me– I needed to protect you from me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH IN THIS CHAPTER

“This arrived today,” Taria set down a battered envelope on the decorative end table Khadgar had almost entirely covered with books and research diagrams. Almost every available surface in the room was much the same way and it seemed every time she visited, Taria noticed more. Khadgar was drowning himself in work and she understood that, she did, but the Alliance could not afford the Guardian burning himself out.

Khadgar hadn’t turned around. “More delays on shipments for things I need, no doubt,” He sighed, “Thank you, your highness, but you needn’t have delivered it in person.”

“It is not a letter from Dalaran,” Taria corrected softly.

Curious now, Khadgar turned to look at her and he noticed her very carefully blank expression. “Oh?” He asked just as carefully, unsure of what he was navigating when Taria became so closed off, “Who… who is it from?”

“Anduin,” Taria’s voice did not waver and for that Khadgar was in awe. 

The name struck him like a physical blow, leaving his hand to grip tight on the table edge he had been hunched over for three hours. “That’s not… that’s not possible.”

“It’s envelope was unmarked but the contents are signed. I took the liberty of checking, as it has already been opened. My apologies for that, but I would not have brought you it had I not been sure. It is addressed to you,” Taria bowed her head in sympathy, “Anduin entrusted it to a young recruit who has only just recovered from his injuries enough to pass it along. It seems my brother saved his life.”

“Of course he did,” Khadgar bit out, dazed and bitter as he ran a hand over his face. 

Taria gave Khadgar a pained smile, her own grief chipped away to bleed anew with the letter’s arrival. “I shall leave you, Khadgar.”

“Your highness,” Khadgar wearily bowed his head to her as she stepped from the room in measured calmness, perhaps more apparent to him because he knew her. At least well enough to see when her regal facade was strained. 

The letter sat on the table like a damnation, just it’s off-white colour enough to make Khadgar’s stomach heave. He’d only just managed to piece something together from what he had been shattered into after the news, he couldn’t do this. He just… he just couldn’t. His first thought was to burn it, and wasn’t that enough to make him feel truly wretched? Anyone else would see this as a gift, one last message, and Khadgar never wanted to touch it let alone read it.

_“- can’t feel that way for you. I can’t.”_

Khadgar’s eyes closed tight as the memory made his throat tighten hard. He pressed the heels of his palms into his closed eyes and willed it away. He hadn’t thought about it for almost a day, he was supposed to be getting over all of it. He had to, he was supposed to be stronger than this.

_“You’re a boy, Khadgar, I can’t give you what you want.”_

He wasn’t a boy when they’d lain together, he was past his twentieth year before they’d even thought to look at each other like that. Khadgar had never been ‘a boy’ like that. Disparaging comments about his round cheeks and earnest behavior, certainly, but to cast him so infantile when he had saved Azeroth? More than once? He’d thought Lothar gave him more credit than that.

_“You can’t mean what you say, you don’t even know what love is to name it.”_

As though Khadgar had never loved and lost long before he’d met Lothar, as though he hadn’t- didn’t- know with every shred of his heart that he loved Lothar more than he could name.

_“I don’t love you.”_

“Stop it, stop it, stop!” Khadgar yelled, digging the edges of his nails into his scalp as he tugged his hair and forced his heaving breaths to slow. The letter was just paper, it wasn’t anything to fear. Khadgar would not be broken again by this. The man was dead, what more hurt could he do? But that was just it, Khadgar would have given anything to have Lothar back. Even if the letter was a grocery list and Taria had made a mistake it wouldn’t matter. It was all that was left and Khadgar was terrified of it. He wanted it as much as he wanted nothing to do with it. 

With anger clenching his jaw Khadgar stalked over to the letter, but his hands trembled when he picked it up. 

The envelope was torn in places and carried signs of the journey it had taken to be delivered, the paper inside worn but still legible. The first line of the letter bore his name, scrawled in Lothar’s lazy print that had endlessly irritated Taria. The man had known how to write correctly, he had just derived more fun by not. 

_Khadgar,_

_I’m sorry._

Those two lines were older and the ink more faded than the rest. They seemed to have been written long before the rest was added, and the additional lines were more hurried, splotches of ink in places where Lothar had rushed his way through writing.

_I know it. In my gut, I know it. I’m not coming back and I have to tell you I lied. Back then, I lied when I told you I didn’t love you._

_~~I was never good enough for~~ You needed to move on from me. ~~You don’t~~  _

_~~I should never have~~   _

_I needed to protect you from me. I wanted you to have more than I could give you._

_I am sorry._

_I should have said yes._

_I love you._

_I always did._

_Anduin Lothar_

Khadgar couldn’t breathe. 

His mouth hung open in a silent cry but he couldn’t suck in enough breath to do more than stand frozen. His eyes had begun to stream the moment he read his name in the achingly familiar scrawl, fat tears rolling down his face that he had thought he’d run out of weeks ago. 

Shakily, Khadgar’s free hand reached to his throat. The simple length of twine he wore around his throat was tugged up by his shaking hand until he could curl his fingers around the gold band hanging from it.

 _I should have said yes_ , Khadgar reread the line over and over. 

Regret and grief were not big enough words for the weight crushing Khadgar as he closed his hand around the wedding band. When his breath did return, it came with a scream. A scream that did not stop.


	10. Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Remember when you promised we’d always be together? Because I remember when I thought you meant it.” Oh I could do things with this one but I wanna see what you come up with.

“That’s supposed to be for emergencies,” Khadgar reprimanded the moment he appeared. The teleport light had barely faded before his tired face was pinched in a frown.

Lothar shrugged, “We’re at war, it’s considered a constant state of emergency.” Lothar feigned surprise, “Or did you forget that? It’s been rather a long time since you were last in Stormwind of course, the memory tends to fade after a while.”

“I don’t have time for this,” Khadgar pinched the bridge of his nose, “You deliberately summoned me here to pick a fight.”

“No,” Lothar corrected, “I’m finishing our last one.”

For the bite in his words Lothar’s posture was relaxed. He had summoned Khadgar in the courtyard of Stormwind Keep and the moon heavy in the night sky kept them lit. There were conspicuously no guards patrolling the courtyard. 

Khadgar had been deeply entrenched in the Kirin Tor’s libraries when he’d felt Lothar’s call, and even knowing it couldn’t be for a legitimate request he came anyway. For sentimental reasons, because he’d missed Lothar. Because he’d wanted to see him after how angry they’d parted last time. But Khadgar was still angry that Lothar worried he would end up like Medivh, that after everything they’d been through Khadgar was still a liability too foolish to make his own decisions. Liked or not, the Kirin Tor had knowledge and as the Guardian Khadgar needed that knowledge. 

He had, however, managed to avoid coming back for a very long time. 

Five months, to be exact.

“I can’t come back, Anduin,” Khadgar sighed, firm in his decision.

Lothar shook his head, “You can, you just don’t want to. I see that now.”

“This is for the good of Azeroth! How can you think that what I am doing is anything less than me trying to do right be the people we’re trying to protect?!”

Lothar was out of his seat at that. His eyes ablaze as he seethed, he looked as thought he wanted to grab Khadgar by his shoulders and shake him. “And you think you can get any help from _them_?” He started pacing around Khadgar, in that predatory way Khadgar hated as he was forced to turn to follow Lothar’s gaze, “After what their teachings led Medivh to? He was made weak and lonely and he was broken, you would end up the same way-”

“I am not weak! I won’t! I have to learn or I won’t be any Guardian at all, Lothar!” Khadgar rushed Lothar and pushed him hard. It didn’t move Lothar very much.

Lothar’s hands closed on Khadgar’s shoulders as the mage shoved him back a step, the anger and frustration from months of dwelling on the same rage boiled up and Lothar took each hit to his chest with a grunt but was not moved by them. Exhausted, Khagar fell into Lothar’s hold and pressed his face into the chest he had been weakly striking a moment ago.

“I have to do this,” Khadgar breathed on a whisper.

Lothar closed his eyes, “I wish you didn’t.”

They were silent for a long moment, the courtyard eerie after their shouting, and Khadgar felt hopeful that maybe something might be salvageable from this. That maybe, given time, there might still be something… anything at all.

“Remember when you promised we’d always be together?” Lothar asked softly. Khadgar’s brow furrowed at the question as Lothar drew back, the warmth of his embrace sorely missed after having had it back only briefly. “Because I remember when I thought you meant it.” Lothar’s eyes were hard but fierce, hurt clear in them as his words bit into Khadgar’s heart and he stepped back with a wounded noise.

“You don’t mean that.”

“Unlike you,” Lothar wasn’t crying but Khadgar rarely ever saw the man cry, but he’d never seen him this close in a long time. War had made them hard and impenetrable, their hearts hidden and worn, but Khadgar could see plain as day the hurt Lothar had nursed alone and forgotten by his lover. Khadgar had abandoned him and now he was reaping the rewards of it, “I mean what I say.”

Khadgar gaped at Lothar, “You can’t just- no, this isn’t- I’m doing what is right for Azeroth!”

“As am I. We are united in that, at least.”

Lothar’s face was stone, closed off and distant now, and Khadgar could feel himself falling apart but he couldn’t give the man the satisfaction of having given the final blow in this. There was no negotiating with Lothar once his mind was made up and his terms clear, and Khadgar couldn’t leave the Kirin Tor yet, not until he knew more.

This was it. Their impasse. 

“But… I love you,” Khadgar insisted, a tremble to his voice that made it difficult to swallow. He hated that there were tears in his eyes and yet Lothar looked as stoic and grim faced as he ever did on the battlefield.

“It isn’t always enough.” Lothar spoke as if to a child, teaching them the newness of the world as though Khadgar hadn’t know until now that they couldn’t work past this. That Lothar wouldn’t be moved and a compromise was not an option.

Khadgar’s jaw set at the certainty of it, a swell of arcane blue swallowing him as he turned away from Lothar and teleported back to Dalaran. 

He had nothing left to say, Lothar’s mind was made up.

Khadgar didn’t feel his knees hit the floor but he saw the wet stains his tears left in the carpet. His doing the right thing was no comfort and he heard Medvih’s voice in his mind once more.

_It’s the loneliness…_

Maybe… maybe he’d made a mistake. 


	11. Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: "I can't move on from something that wasn't supposed to end!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon timeline? How about: FIGHT ME >:D <3

“I can close it- for good this time!” Khadgar’s voice roared over the vortex of unholy magic rending the portal open. They were close enough to it to feel the pull of it, and even to Lothar’s unfamiliar sense he could sense nothing but foulness from it. 

Khadgar had gotten a small contingent of them to the gate itself, just a handful of soldiers, Khadgar, and Lothar to fight if they were caught. This far behind enemy lines and they couldn’t see the front lines. Lothar could only guess if the fight was in their favour or not, but if Khadgar had a way to seal the gate once more then that would turn the tide for the Alliance.

They could be victorious once more.

“Do it!” Lothar barked, a sure nod to Khadgar who looked conflicted. “You can do this,” He urged, leaning in and clasping a hand around Khadgar’s neck. 

It was effortless habit now, to pull Khadgar in for a quick kiss to bolster them both. The battle was in Lothar’s gut and drove him to grin as he pulled away, sure of Khadgar’s abilities and eager to win so they could return home. 

“It won’t be easy, and I don’t think-”

“You can do this.”

Khadgar didn’t look sure as he hauled Lothar in for another kiss, a deeper one where their teeth clacked and Lothar was knocked off balance with the fervor of it. He was pushed back just as suddenly and when Lothar dazedly opened his eyes he was encased in an arcane bubble. 

“Khadgar, what…”

Khadgar looked frightened and it twisted Lothar’s stomach to see him so shaken, “You have to promise me you won’t break from this. You have to carry on, Azeroth needs you.”

“What are you talking about?” Lothar pressed his hand to the arcane shield, slamming it in the same spot with a curled fist, “Let me out of this, Khadgar, what are you doing?”

“It has to be closed from the other side!” Khadgar shouted over the roar of the portal, his fiercely determined expression staying any of the soldiers who might have intervened. “I have to go through to close it. I’m not… I can’t come back once it’s closed.”

“There has to be another way,” Lothar insisted, shaking his head, “We found another way last time-”

“The portal has been open too long, and it was Medivh who closed it last time. I am not… not powerful enough to… this is all I can do,” Khadgar’s shoulders sagged but his spine remained straight. He was set to his task and he wouldn’t be moved. “You have to forgive me, Anduin. Please, this is… this is what has to be done. Promise me you’ll move on.”

“I can’t move on from something that wasn’t supposed to end!” Lothar snarled, his fist colliding with the shield once more. Frantically as he saw Khadgar take another step he punched it again. “Khadgar! Don’t!” He roared, “Don’t you dare! Men, stop him!”

“No! This is to save Azeroth!” Khadgar ordered, the soldiers floundering between the authority of their Champion and their Guardian.

“I don’t care, don’t do this!”

“I love you, Anduin,” Khadgar shouted over the storm of magic, his hand outstretched to hold the bubble as he stepped back.

And through. The fingers of his outstretched hand were the last to vanish into the vile green magic and not once did Lothar stop beating his fists against the arcane shield. When it finally flickered and died the portal had begun to waver.

“No, no, no!” Lothar roared, “Not like this, no!” He screamed, tearing his way from the shielding in time to see the gateway flicker out entirely. 

The world was saved, and with it Lothar’s world shattered.


	12. Farewells

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For the Prompt: How about this one? “I’m not angry at you, just at myself… Because I knew this would happen, but I let myself fall in love with you anyways.”

“Don’t be angry,” Lothar choked on a breath as red stained his teeth. The metal of his breastplate had been caved into his chest, fractured pieces driving into his skin where the impact of the doomhammer had folded in the metal.

There was nothing anyone could do. Khadgar couldn’t move him, couldn’t teleport him, couldn’t heal him. He’d made it time to the separated group of forces to see their bodies spread out in a slaughter, only to fall to his knees at Lothar’s side and watch him breathe his last. It was like a horrid gift, sitting with Lothar and knowing there was nothing he could do but at least Lothar wasn’t alone.

“You know I…” Lothar coughed wetly and Khadgar flinched to see the red speckling Lothar’ chin, “…I hate it when you’re angry.”

Gently, Khadgar eased his fingers through some of the strands of hair not knotted together from blood and dirt on Lothar’s head,  “I’m not angry at you,” Khadgar said softly, trying so hard to keep his voice steady and calm for Lothar, “Just at myself… Because I knew this would happen, but I let myself fall in love with you anyways.” It was a poor joke but he gave Lothar a weak smile, heart clenching as Lothar sputtered a laugh. 

More red leaked from his mouth and Khadgar thought it had to be a nightmare. A vivid one. He’d wake up sweating from being trapped under Lothar’s hulking, blanket-stealing body, Lothar would tell him it was a dream and they’d fall right back asleep. 

“Had to… eventually,” Lothar’s voice was strained, his breath coming in ready and more difficult with each shallow heave. “Khad… gar…?”

Khadgar squeezed his eyes shut to try and stop the tears but a few still escaped. He could cry later, Khadgar thought, he had to be here for Lothar. “Yes, Anduin?” Silence greeted him and Khadgar looked down to Lothar’s head settled in Khadgar’s lap. His eyes were open but they were vacant. “Love?” 

He wasn’t breathing.

“No, no, Anduin, please,” Khadgar choked, cupping the warrior’s face and pleading with his still face, “Please, love, come back. Don’t leave me. Please,” Khadgar buried his face into the mess of Lothar’s hair, cradling the man tightly, “Light, please, no. Give him back. I c-can’t, Light, please…”

The portal still needed to be closed. Khadgar could not stay with Lothar any longer, frantic as he was to beg Lothar return to him. 

He pressed a kiss to lothar’s temple and carefully laid him down where he had fallen. 

Lothar would not fall in vain, Khadgar would make sure of it.

He would burn Blackrock Spire to the ground.

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr: akaiba.tumblr.com


End file.
